U.S. boys may be entering puberty earlier in comparison to past generations just like girls as suggested by latest study published in the journal of Pediatrics. Researchers found that maturation period of boys have been declined from six months to two years which indicate the age of puberty is creeping down.

This study is also important for parents as said lead author of the study.

“They need to talk to their boys earlier than they would have thought about puberty and sexual development and all of those related issues,” said Marcia Herman-Giddens at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Recent studies have shown that girls are maturing at a younger age and some girl’s breast development starts as early as age 7 or 8. Some doctors suggest that estrogen like chemicals in the environment play important role for early maturation in girls.

If boys are developing early in comparison to previous generation that dose no mean that they are completely mature with aspect of socialism and psychology as said by researchers.

“Now there’s probably a bigger disparity between their physical maturation and their psychosocial maturation,” said Dr. Frank Biro, head of adolescent medicine at Cincinnati Children’s Medical Center, who wasn’t involved in the new analysis.

“People are going to interact with them like they’re older,” he told Reuters Health.

This study was conducted on 4,131 boys age 6 to 16.” Based on the so-called Tanner stages of development – a technique doctors use to measure how far along in puberty a young person is – genital changes in boys started around the age of 9 or 10, and pubic hair appeared between age 10 and 11 1/2, on average.”

“The reasons it is happening may not be healthy,” she told Reuters Health.

“Parents need to monitor both their daughters and their sons a little more closely than they would have before,” Biro said.